Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for deflecting and increasing the lateral spacing between juxtaposed rows and advanced of cream-filled wafers a supporting surface in the direction of the rows in a plurality of lanes associated with respective rows.
Filled wafers are formed by cutting apart wafer blocks in slicers provided with cutting wires. The filled wafers are arranged in juxtaposed, closely spaced apart longitudinal rows as they are pushed through the wafer block slicer and it is desired so to guide the wafers that they are laterally spaced apart. For this purpose the rows of wafers are pushed into a diverging device provided with thin guiding plates extending into respective gaps defined between juxtaposed wafers and having only a width equal to the thickness of a knife of the wafer block slicer. These guiding plates define divering passages, which have the configuration of a gently curved arc. Wafer slices filled with a sticky composition, such as caramel, are liable to soil the guiding plates very quickly, particularly in those areas in which the rows of wafers are being laterally deflected. In order to prevent the wafers from getting stuck, such a diverging device must often be cleaned so that the entire wafer production line must be shut down for correspondingly long times.